Information processing device, information processing method, and computer program product

ABSTRACT

An information processing device according to an embodiment includes a keyword extracting unit, a tag generating unit and a UI control unit. The keyword extracting unit extracts a keyword from time-series texts within a time range set by a user. The tag generating unit generates a tag corresponding to a time period from a first appearing time until a last appearing time of a same keyword appearing plural times within a duration set according to the time range. The UI control unit creates a UI screen including a first display area in which a time axis corresponding to the time range is displayed and a second display area in which the tag is displayed while causing the tag to correspond to the time period on the time axis, and resets, by selecting the tag, a time period of the selected tag in the time range to update the UI screen.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority fromJapanese Patent Application No. 2016-059546, filed on Mar. 24, 2016; theentire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

Embodiments described herein relate generally to an informationprocessing device, an information processing method, and a computerprogram product.

BACKGROUND

In order to efficiently access necessary parts among various contentssuch as lengthy video or voice, there is a technology of attachinghierarchical tags on the contents to display a hierarchical structure ofthe tags. According to this technology, by tracing a hierarchical tag, auser can acknowledge the outline of the contents and can quickly findnecessary parts.

In a case where a large amount of time-series texts such as meetingarchives or records of call-takings at a call center are analyzed, inorder to facilitate acknowledging of the topic of necessary parts andsearching of parts corresponding to a specific topic, it is effective todisplay tags indicating the topics of time-series texts. However, inconventional technologies, because hierarchization of tags is fixed, itis not possible to display tags indicating the topics of time-seriestexts with an arbitrary scale specified by a user, and this problemrequires improvements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configurationexample of a server device according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a user management table;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a voice table;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a time-series text table;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a keyword text table;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a keyword table;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a tag table;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram for explaining an outline of processes forkeyword extraction and tag generation;

FIG. 9A is a schematic diagram for explaining an outline of a process ofarranging tags;

FIG. 9B is a schematic diagram for explaining an outline of a process ofarranging tags;

FIG. 9C is a schematic diagram for explaining an outline of a process ofarranging tags;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a UI screen;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the UI screen;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of the UI screen;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process procedureperformed by the server device;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a keyword extractingprocess;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a tag generatingprocess;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a UI-screen creatingprocess;

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of an agenda;

FIG. 18A is a diagram illustrating an example of a UI screen accordingto a modification;

FIG. 18B is a diagram illustrating an example of a UI screen accordingto a modification;

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of checkinstructions;

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of the UI screen accordingto the modification; and

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration exampleof the server device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An information processing device according to an embodiment includes akeyword extracting unit, a tag generating unit and a UI control unit.The keyword extracting unit extracts a keyword from time-series textswithin a time range that is set according to a user operation. The taggenerating unit generates a tag corresponding to a time period from afirst appearing time until a last appearing time of a same keywordappearing a plurality of times within a duration that is set accordingto a size of the time range and having the keyword as a label. The UIcontrol unit creates a UI screen including a first display area in whicha time axis corresponding to the time range is displayed and a seconddisplay area in which the tag is displayed while causing the tag tocorrespond to the time period on the time axis, and resets, according toa user operation for selecting the tag on the UI screen, a time periodof the selected tag in the time range to update the UI screen.

An information processing device according to an embodiment includes akeyword extracting unit, a tag generating unit, and a UI control unit.The keyword extracting unit extracts a keyword from time-series textswithin a time range that is set according to a user operation. The taggenerating unit generates a tag corresponding to a time period from afirst appearing time until a last appearing time of a same keywordappearing a plurality of times within a duration that is set accordingto a size of the time range and having the keyword as a label. The UIcontrol unit creates a UI screen including a first display area in whicha time axis corresponding to the time range is displayed and a seconddisplay area in which the tag is displayed while causing the tag tocorrespond to the time period on the time axis, and, according to a useroperation for selecting the tag on the UI screen, resets a time periodof the selected tag in the time range to update the UI screen.

Outline of Embodiment

An information processing device, an information processing method, anda computer program product according to an embodiment will be describedbelow in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In thepresent embodiment, there is assumed an application example of a systemin which, for example, a recognition result text having recognizedvoices such as dialogues in a meeting is used as a time-series text andtags indicating the topics of the dialogues are displayed so as tosupport topic acknowledgement. The applicable examples of the presentembodiment are not limited thereto. For example, as a time-series text,a text having recognized character images such as handwritten lettersand printed letters using character recognition, or a text havingrecognized texts machine-translated into another language can be alsoused.

The information processing device according to the present embodimentcan be realized, for example, as a server device of a server-clientsystem using a network. As the system mode, a Web system is assumed. Inthis case, the server device has a function as a Web server, and causesa display device of a client terminal such as a PC (personal computer)or a smartphone having a Web browser incorporated therein to display aUI screen described later. The UI screen displayed on the display deviceof the client terminal is updated by the server device according to auser operation performed on the UI screen.

Configuration of Server Device

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configurationexample of a server device 10 according to the present embodiment. Theserver device 10 according to the present embodiment includes, forexample, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a voice recording unit 11, avoice-data accumulating unit 12, a voice recognizing unit 13, atime-series-text accumulating unit 14, a keyword extracting unit 15, akeyword holding unit 16, a tag generating unit 17, a tag holding unit18, and a UI control unit 19.

Further, the server device 10 according to the present embodiment isconnected to a voice input device 50 and a display device 60 of a clientterminal via a network. The voice input device 50 includes a microphonebeing incorporated in the client terminal or being externally connectedto the client terminal, and a voice transmission unit that transmitsvoices recorded with the microphone to the server device 10. The displaydevice 60 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display thatdisplays a UI screen, which is created by the server device 10 and isrendered by a Web browser incorporated in the client terminal. It is notalways necessary that the voice input device 50 and the display device60 are included in the same client terminal.

A user can utilize services conducted by the server device 10 accordingto the present embodiment by logging in the system while using theclient terminal. It is assumed that users who can log in the system areregistered in advance. The registered users are managed with a usermanagement table T1.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the user management tableT1. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the user management table T1stores therein a user ID uniquely allocated to each user and a user nameof the user identified by the user ID, while the user ID and the username are associated with each other. Other than a user name, items suchas an account name and a password used for logging in can be stored inthe user management table T1 as these items are associated with the userID. Voices input in the server device 10 are shared in the system, andall users in the system can refer to the input voices. It is alsopossible that a group is set for a plurality of users such that specificvoices are shared only by the users in a specific group.

The voice recording unit 11 stores, in the voice-data accumulating unit12, voices input in the server device 10 by the voice input device 50.The voice-data accumulating unit 12 accumulates the voices input in theserver device 10. The voices are stored in the voice-data accumulatingunit 12 as, for example, byte data of linear PCM. The byte data can becreated by using an arbitrary audio codec.

The voices accumulated in the voice-data accumulating unit 12 aremanaged with a voice table T2. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating anexample of the voice table T2. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3,the voice table T2 stores therein a voice ID uniquely allocated to eachvoice, a voice (voice data) identified by the voice ID, and a time wheninputting of the voice started, while the voice ID, the voice, and thetime are associated with one another. In the example of FIG. 3, as forthe time when inputting of the voice started, the date, month, and yearthereof are omitted. Also in the following examples, in the notation ofthe time, the date, month, and year thereof are omitted; however, inpractice, times including the date, month, and year thereof are handled.

The voice recognizing unit 13 performs a voice recognizing process onthe voices to be accumulated in the voice-data accumulating unit 12, andstores an obtained recognition result text as a time-series text in thetime-series-text accumulating unit 14. The voice recognizing unit 13 canperform a voice recognizing process on the voices input in the serverdevice 10 simultaneously with the voice recording unit 11 storing, inthe voice-data accumulating unit 12, the voices input in the serverdevice 10. Further, when candidates for a plurality of recognitionresult texts are obtained by the voice recognizing process, it ispossible to store a time-series text including these candidates in thetime-series-text accumulating unit 14. The time-series-text accumulatingunit 14 accumulates therein the time-series text obtained by the voicerecognizing process performed by the voice recognizing unit 13.

The time-series text accumulated in the time-series-text accumulatingunit 14 is managed with a time-series text table T3. FIG. 4 is a diagramillustrating an example of the time-series text table T3. For example,as illustrated in FIG. 4, the time-series text table T3 stores therein atime-series text ID uniquely allocated to each time-series text, atime-series text identified by the time-series text ID, a time of thetime-series text, a user ID of a user who has spoken a voicecorresponding to the time-series text, and a voice ID of the voice,while these items are associated with one another.

The time of the time-series text is a time of a voice corresponding tothe time-series text, that is, a time when inputting of a voice on whicha voice recognizing process for obtaining the time-series text isperformed. As described above, the time-series text can includecandidates for a plurality of recognition result texts.

The keyword extracting unit 15 extracts a keyword from time-series textswithin a time range that is set according to a user operation, amongtime-series texts accumulated in the time-series-text accumulating unit14. As the user operation for setting the time range, it is possible touse an arbitrary method capable of performing range specification. Forexample, when a smartphone is used as a client terminal, the time rangecan be set with a pinch-in operation and a pinch-out operation on thesmartphone, and when a PC is used as a client terminal, the time rangecan be set according to a mouse operation on the PC, and the time rangecan be set according to an operation for specifying a starting point anda terminal point of the time range with a pull-down list.

The keyword extracting unit 15 refers to the time-series text table T3,and, among the time-series texts accumulated in the time-series-textaccumulating unit 14, clips out time-series texts having a time within atime range that is set as described above. Subsequently, the keywordextracting unit 15 extracts a keyword from the clipped time-seriestexts. The extraction of the keyword is performed with, for example, amethod using a scale related to the appearing frequency of words such asTF-IDF, and a weight indicating the keyword and its importance iscalculated. For example, the keyword extracting unit 15 performs amorphological analysis on the clipped time-series texts, calculatesweights using TF-IDF and the like with respect to nouns and unknownwords, sorts the words in descending order of weight, and the wordswithin a given high rank are designated as keywords.

As an example, the weight of a keyword is calculated by multiplying aweight unique to the keyword calculated with TF-IDF by a frequency as tohow many times the keyword appears in a time-series text, in apredetermined time range from a time when the keyword first appears.Therefore, the weight of the same keyword may vary according to itsappearing time.

Post processing such as coupling a plurality of keywords that appearsuccessively in order to create a new keyword can be performed. Further,it is possible to extract keywords by using another scale, such as thatusing a co-occurrence relation between words. In addition, when atime-series text includes candidates for a plurality of recognitionresult texts, keywords can be extracted from each of these candidates.

When the keyword extracting unit 15 extracts keywords from time-seriestexts within a set time range with the processes described above, thekeyword extracting unit 15 creates a keyword text table 14 and a keywordtable T5 for managing each of the extracted keywords, and stores thesetables in the keyword holding unit 16. The keyword holding unit 16temporarily (for example, until the setting of the time range ischanged) holds the keyword text table T4 and the keyword table T5.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of the keyword text table 14held in the keyword holding unit 16. For example, as illustrated in FIG.5, the keyword text table 14 stores therein a keyword text ID uniquelyallocated to each keyword text (a text corresponding to the notation ofa keyword) and a keyword text identified by the keyword text ID, whilethe keyword text ID and the keyword text are associated with each other.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the keyword table T5 heldin the keyword holding unit 16. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 6,the keyword table T5 stores therein a keyword ID uniquely allocated toeach keyword extracted by the keyword extracting unit 15, a keyword textID corresponding to a keyword identified by the keyword ID, a time whenthe keyword has appeared, a weight calculated with respect to thekeyword, and a time-series text ID of the time-series text in which thekeyword has appeared, while these items are associated with one another.

In the present embodiment, as the time when a keyword has appeared,while the time of the time-series text in which the keyword is included(an input start time of a voice corresponding to the time-series text)is used, the time is not limited thereto. For example, in a voicerecognizing process, when the appearing time is recorded in the unit ofword, the appearing time recorded in the unit of word can be used as theappearing time of the keyword.

The tag generating unit 17 refers to the keyword text table 14 and thekeyword table T5 held in the keyword holding unit 16, and among thekeywords extracted by the keyword extracting unit 15, a keyword groupincluding the same keyword texts in a predetermined duration isspecified. The duration is set according to the size of the time rangethat is set according to a user operation. The tag generating unit 17generates a tag corresponding to a time period from the first appearingtime until the last appearing time of the same keyword (keywords of thesame keyword text) appearing within the duration for a plurality oftimes, and having the keyword (the keyword text) as a label. As theduration used as a reference for tag generation, for example, one tenthof the time range that is set according to a user operation is used. Therelation between the size of the time range that is set according to auser operation and the duration that is used as a reference for taggeneration is not limited to the above example, and it suffices that therelation is set arbitrarily according to the use application and thelike.

By collecting keywords with the appearing times thereof beingconcentrated in the duration described above within a specified keywordgroup and forming the keywords as one group, the tag generating unit 17generates a tag indicating a topic of a time-series text within the timerange that is set according to a user operation. That is, becausekeywords which are spoken repeatedly within the set time range oftenindicate a certain topic within the time range, these keywords aretagged. When a tag is displayed on a UI screen described later, akeyword text that is arranged in the corresponding time period andfunctions as a label of the tag is displayed.

When the tag generating unit 17 generates, with the processes describedabove, a tag indicating a topic of a time-series text, the taggenerating unit 17 creates a tag table T6 for managing the generatedtag, and stores the tag table T6 in the tag holding unit 18. The tagholding unit 18 temporarily (for example, until the setting of the timerange is changed) holds the tag table T6.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the tag table T6 held inthe tag holding unit 18. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the tagtable T6 stores therein a tag ID uniquely allocated to each taggenerated by the tag generating unit 17, a keyword text ID of a keywordtext corresponding to the tag identified by the tag ID, a start time andan end time indicating a time period of the tag, a weight calculatedwith respect to the tag, and a representative time-series text ID foridentifying a representative time-series text of the tag, while theseitems are associated with one another.

The start time indicates the first appearing time of a keyword generatedas a tag, and the end time indicates the last appearing time of thekeyword generated as a tag. The time period between the start time andthe end time is the time period of the tag. The weight of the tag iscalculated based on the weights of respective keywords collected as onegroup. For example, as for the calculation, a combination of the weightsof respective keywords can be used, and it is possible to performcorrection such that the longer the display width of the tag, the higherits weight is. Further, the mean value of the weights of respectivekeywords can be used for the calculation. The representative time-seriestext is a representative time-series text among time-series texts fromwhich a keyword corresponding to the tag is extracted, and thetime-series text ID of the time-series text is the representativetime-series text ID. As the representative time-series text, forexample, a time-series text from which a keyword having the highestweight among the keywords collected as one group is used. It is alsopossible to perform correction such that, for example, a time-seriestext including the largest number of other keywords is preferentiallydesignated as the representative time-series text.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram for explaining an outline of processes forkeyword extraction and tag generation. First, the keyword extractingunit 15 performs clipping out on time-series data accumulated in thetime-series-text accumulating unit 14 in a time range that is setaccording to a user operation. In the example of FIG. 8, 13:00 to 14:00on 20 Jan. 2014 is set as the time range, and time-series texts withinthe time range are clipped out.

Next, the keyword extracting unit 15 performs extraction of a keyword onthe clipped time-series texts. The keyword includes the text (keywordtext), and a time and a weight of a time-series text in which thekeyword is included. In the example of FIG. 8, the clipped time-seriestexts are recognition result texts in a meeting related to systemdevelopment. The keyword extracting unit 15 performs a morphologicalanalysis on these time-series texts, calculates weights with respect tonouns and unknown words to sort the words in descending order of weight,and designates the words within a given number of higher-ranking wordsas keywords. Subsequently, the keyword extracting unit 15 creates thekeyword text table T4 exemplified in FIG. 5 and the keyword table T5exemplified in FIG. 6, and stores these tables in the keyword holdingunit 16.

Next, the tag generating unit 17 collects keywords having the samekeyword text ID in the keyword table T5, the keywords of which the time(appearing time) thereof is within a duration that is set according tothe size of the time range, as one group to form a tag. In the exampleof FIG. 8, the keywords “transfer” appearing at 13:00:15, 13:00:19, and13:01:35 (see FIGS. 5 and 6) are collected as one tag. The “transfer”tag has a time period from 13:00:15 that is a time when, within theduration described above, the keyword “transfer” appeared first time to13:01:35 that is a time when the keyword “transfer” appeared last time.In the example of FIG. 8, similarly to the “transfer” tag, a “buildtool” tag, a “code rule” tag, a “process health check” tag, an“integration tool” tag, and the like are generated. Subsequently, thetag generating unit 17 creates the tag table T6 exemplified in FIG. 7,and stores the tag table T6 in the tag holding unit 18.

The UI control unit 19 creates a UI screen that is displayed on thedisplay device 60 of a client terminal. The UI screen created by the UIcontrol unit 19 is a screen on which tags generated by the taggenerating unit 17 are arranged while the tags are corresponded to atime axis representing a time range that is set according to a useroperation, and representative time-series texts corresponding to each ofthe tags are displayed simultaneously with the tags. The UI control unit19 updates the UI screen according to user operations performed on theUI screen. Specifically, when an operation for selecting an arbitrarytag on the UI screen is performed, the UI control unit 19 resets thetime period corresponding to the selected tag in the time rangedescribed above. Due to this operation, keyword extraction and taggeneration based on the newly reset time range are performed. The UIcontrol unit 19 recreates a UI screen using the newly generated tags,and updates the UI screen displayed on the display device 60.

FIG. 9A, FIG. 9B, and FIG. 9C are schematic diagrams for explaining anoutline of a process of arranging tags. As illustrated in FIG. 9A, eachof the tags generated by the tag generating unit 17 has a time periodaccording to an appearing time of a keyword. The UI control unit 19sorts the tags generated by the tag generating unit 17 in descendingorder of weight and puts the sorted tags on a list. Subsequently, the UIcontrol unit 19 selects the tags from the list in descending order ofweight, checks whether the selected tags can be arranged in theircorresponding time periods, and if the arrangement can be made, arrangesthe tags in their corresponding time periods. Thereafter, the selectedtags are deleted from the list. The UI control unit 19 performs thisprocess until the list becomes empty. FIG. 9B illustrates a state wherethe “build tool” tag, which has the highest weight, is arranged, andFIG. 9C illustrates a result of an attempt of arranging all the tagsillustrated in FIG. 9A.

The UI screen created by the UI control unit 19 has a plurality ofcolumns in which tags can be arranged. In the examples of FIGS. 9B and9C, there are spaces for two columns in which tags can be arranged, andtwo tags can be arranged in the same time period. The number of columnsin which tags can be arranged is changed according to the horizontalwidth of a browser for rendering the UI screen. The tags are arranged indescending order of weight in a column in which time periodscorresponding to the tags are unused. When there is no space forarranging the tags, the process of arranging the tags is skipped. The UIcontrol unit 19 performs this process on all the generated tags.

After arranging the tags as described above, the UI control unit 19arranges representative time-series texts corresponding to therespective tags. Similarly to the tags, an attempt is made for therepresentative time-series texts to be arranged for each of the tagsthat are sorted in order of weight. While the location where therespective representative time-series texts are arranged is set to matchthe time period of the tags as much as possible, some coordinatedeviation is permitted.

According to the above processes, the UI control unit 19 creates a UIscreen on which a time axis corresponding to a time range that is setaccording to a user operation, tags generated by the tag generating unit17, and representative time-series texts of the tags are displayed. TheUI screen created by the UI control unit 19 is displayed on the displaydevice 60 of a client terminal.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a UI screen 20 that iscreated by the UI control unit 19 and displayed on the display device 60of a client terminal. The UI screen 20 includes a time axis area 21(first display area) that is on the left side of the screen where a timeaxis corresponding to a time range that is set according to a useroperation is displayed, a tag area 22 (second display area) that is inthe center of the screen where tags are displayed while causing thesetags to correspond to the time periods on the time axis of the time axisarea 21, and a dialogue menu area 23 (third display area) on the rightside of the screen where representative time-series texts correspondingto the tags displayed in the tag area 22 are displayed.

In the example of FIG. 10, there is illustrated an example in which atime range of a month or more, which is from 6 Dec. 2013 to 20 Jan.2014, is set according to a user operation, and a time axiscorresponding to this time range is displayed in the time axis area 21.When many time periods having no time-series text are included in thetime range that is set according to a user operation, as exemplified inFIG. 10, displaying of these time periods can be omitted.

In the tag area 22, among the tags generated by the tag generating unit17 with respect to the time-series texts within the set time range, tagsthat can be arranged in descending order of weight are displayed.Further, in the dialogue menu area 23, among the representativetime-series texts of the tags arranged in the tag area 22,representative time-series texts that can be arranged in descendingorder of weight of tags are displayed. It is preferable that the tagsdisplayed in the tag area 22 and the representative time-series textsdisplayed in the dialogue menu area 23 are displayed such thatcorresponding relations between the tags and the representativetime-series texts are clearly illustrated with a predetermined visualexpression. In the example of FIG. 10, by the lines connecting each ofthe tags and each of the corresponding representative time-series texts,the corresponding relations between the tags and the representativetime-series texts are clearly illustrated. The visual expression forclearly illustrating the corresponding relations between the tags andthe representative time-series texts is not limited to this example. Forexample, other visual expressions such as displaying the background of atag and that of a representative time-series text in a correspondingrelation with the same color can be used.

Users can select tags displayed in the tag area 22 on the UI screen 20described above. When a certain tag is selected according to a useroperation, a time period corresponding to the selected tag is set in anew time range, keyword extraction and tag generation based on the newtime range are performed, and the UI screen 20 is updated.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the UI screen 20 that isupdated according to a user operation, and illustrates a UI screen 20updated according to selection of a “build process” tag on the UI screen20 in FIG. 10. When the “build process” tag is selected by a user on theUI screen in FIG. 10, a time period from around 13:00 to 14:00 on 20Jan. 2014, which is the time period of the “build process” tag, is setin a new time range. Subsequently, a time axis corresponding to thistime range is displayed in the time axis area 21. Further, among thetags generated by the tag generating unit 17 with respect to thetime-series texts within this time range, tags that can be arranged indescending order of weight are displayed in the tag area 22.Furthermore, among the representative time-series texts of the tagsarranged in the tag area 22, representative time-series texts that canbe arranged in descending order of weight of tags are displayed. Whencandidate texts are included in the representative time-series texts, itis possible to preferentially display texts in which a keyword “buildprocess”, which is a label of the tag selected by the user, is included.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, the “build process” tag selected by a user isdisplayed on the leftmost part in the tag area 22, and when the userselects this tag, the screen returns to the UI screen 20 illustrated inFIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of the UI screen 20 updatedaccording to a user operation, and illustrates a UI screen 20 updatedaccording to selection of a “build tool” tag on the UI screen 20 in FIG.11. In the tag area 22 on the UI screen 20 in FIG. 11, two “build tool”tags are displayed. Two “build tool” tags are displayed because akeyword of which keyword text is “build tool” has appeared repeatedly indifferent time periods within a set time range. When any one of the two“build tool” tags is selected by a user on the UI screen 20 in FIG. 11,in addition to the time period of the selected “build tool” tag, thetime period of the other “build tool” tag having the same label as thatof the selected “build tool” tag is set in a new time range.Subsequently, a time axis corresponding to theses time ranges isdisplayed in the time axis area 21. Further, among the tags generated bythe tag generating unit 17 with respect to the time-series texts withinthese time ranges, tags that can be arranged in descending order ofweight are displayed in the tag area 22. Furthermore, among therepresentative time-series texts of the tags arranged in the tag area22, representative time-series texts that can be arranged in descendingorder of weight of tags are displayed.

As illustrated in FIG. 12, the “build tool” tag selected by a user andthe other “build tool” tag having the same label as that of the selected“build tool” tag are displayed on the leftmost part in the tag area 22,and when the user selects one of these tags, the screen returns to theUI screen 20 illustrated in FIG. 11.

On the UI screen 20 in FIG. 12, a meeting-minute creating area 24(fourth display area) for users to edit texts is added on the right sideof the dialogue menu area 23. Addition and deletion of themeeting-minute creating area 24 with respect to the UI screen 20 can beswitched by a predetermined button operation and the like on the UIscreen 20 at an arbitrary timing. In the present embodiment, it isassumed that a voice recognition text of dialogues during a meeting isused as time-series data, and users can create meeting minutes using themeeting-minute creating area 24. A button for switching between additionand deletion of the meeting-minute creating area 24 is omitted from thedrawings.

When the meeting-minute creating area 24 is added on the UI screen 20,as illustrated in FIG. 12, with respect to each of the representativetime-series texts displayed in the dialogue menu area 23, a “transfer”button 31 and a “full text (key sentence)” button 32 are added on the UIscreen 20. As for the “full text (key sentence)” button 32, the labelnotation thereof is switched between “full text” and “key sentence”,according to the display mode of the dialogue menu area 23. The “fulltext” button 32 is illustrated in FIG. 12.

When the “transfer” button 31 is pressed by a user, a representativetime-series text corresponding to the pressed “transfer” button 31 istransferred in the meeting-minute creating area 24. When therepresentative time-series text is transferred in the meeting-minutecreating area 24 according to the operation of the “transfer” button 31,it is possible to configure that a voice (original data) correspondingto the representative time-series text to be transferred is reproduced.Further, when the representative time-series text is a text of atranslated language that is created by machine-translating a text of anoriginal language, it is possible to configure that the text of theoriginal language (original data) is displayed in the meeting-minutecreating area 24 or the like for a predetermined period of time.Furthermore, when the representative time-series text is a text createdby performing character recognition on character images such ashandwritten letters and printed letters, it is possible to configurethat the character images (original data) is displayed in themeeting-minute creating area 24 or the like for a predetermined periodof time.

When the “full text” button 32 is pressed by the user, the display modeof the dialogue menu area 23 is switched from a key sentence mode inwhich only a representative time-series text is displayed to a full textmode in which a representative time-series text and time-series textstherearound are displayed. Subsequently, all of the time-series textsaround the representative time-series text corresponding to the pressed“full text” button 32 are displayed in the dialogue menu area 23. In thefull text mode, by scrolling the dialogue menu area 23, the time-seriestexts around the representative time-series text can be viewed. Further,the “full text” button 32 added to each of the time-series texts isswitched to the “key sentence” button 32 and when the “key sentence”button 32 is pressed, the display mode of the dialogue menu area 23 isswitched from the full text mode to the key sentence mode, and thescreen returns to the original screen on which only the representativetime-series text is displayed in the dialogue menu area 23.

Operations of Server Device

Next, operations of the server device 10 according to the presentembodiment are described with reference to the flowcharts in FIGS. 13 to16. In the following descriptions, it is assumed that voices input inthe server device 10 by the voice input device 50 are alreadyaccumulated in the voice-data accumulating unit 12, and operations ofthe server device 10 when the UI screen 20 is viewed on the displaydevice 60 after a user has logged in the server device 10 are described.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process procedureperformed by the server device 10 according to the present embodiment.First, when a user logs in the server device 10 and performs apredetermined operation for specifying a time range, the UI control unit19 sets the time range according to a user operation (Step S101).

Next, the keyword extracting unit 15 performs a keyword extractingprocess based on the time range set at Step S101 (Step S102).

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a keyword extractingprocess. When the keyword extracting process is started, the keywordextracting unit 15 first clips out time-series texts in a time range setat Step S101 from time-series texts accumulated in the time-series-textaccumulating unit 14 (Step S201). Thereafter, the keyword extractingunit 15 extracts a keyword from the time-series texts clipped out atStep S201 (Step S202).

Subsequently, the keyword extracting unit 15 creates the keyword texttable T4 and the keyword table T5 according to the result at Step S202and stores these tables in the keyword holding unit 16 (Step S203), andfinishes the keyword extracting process.

After finishing the keyword extracting process, based on the keywordtext table T4 and the keyword table T5 held in the keyword holding unit16, the tag generating unit 17 performs a tag generating process (StepS103).

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the tag generatingprocess. When the tag generating process is started, the tag generatingunit 17 first refers to the keyword text table T4 and the keyword tableT5 held in the keyword holding unit 16, and then collects, among thekeywords extracted at Step S102, the same keyword appearing a pluralityof times within a predetermined duration that is set according to thetime range set at Step S101 to form a tag (Step S301). The tag generatedat Step S301 has a time period from the first appearing time of thecollected keyword until the last appearing time thereof, and designatesthe keyword text of the keyword as a label.

Next, the tag generating unit 17 calculates the weight of each of thetags generated at Step S301 (Step S302). Thereafter, according to theresults at Step S301 and Step S302, the tag generating unit 17 createsthe tag table T6 and stores the created tag table T6 in the tag holdingunit 18 (Step S303), and then finishes the tag generating process.

After finishing the tag generating process, the UI control unit 19performs a UI-screen creating process (Step S104).

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the UI-screen creatingprocess. When the UI-screen creating process is started, the UI controlunit 19 first displays a time axis corresponding to the time range setat Step S101 in the time axis area 21 on the UI screen 20 (Step S401).

Next, the UI control unit 19 refers to the tag table T6 held in the tagholding unit 18, sorts the tags generated at Step S103 in descendingorder of weight, and creates a list of these tags (Step S402).Thereafter, the UI control unit 19 extracts a tag from the top of thelist created at Step S402 (Step S403), and determines whether the tagcan be arranged in a corresponding time period of the tag area 22 on theUI screen 20 (Step S404). In this process, when the tag extracted fromthe list at Step S403 can be arranged in the corresponding time period(YES at Step S404), the tag is arranged in the corresponding time period(Step S405), and the tag is deleted from the list (Step S406).Meanwhile, when the tag extracted from the list at Step S403 cannot bearranged in the corresponding time period (NO at Step S404), the tag isdeleted from the list without performing any process (Step S406).

Thereafter, the UI control unit 19 determines whether the list createdat Step S402 has become empty (Step S407), and when the list is notempty (NO at Step S407), the process returns to Step S403 to repeat theprocesses at and after Step S403. Meanwhile, when the list is empty (YESat Step S407), the UI control unit 19 displays, in the dialogue menuarea 23, a representative time-series text of the tag to be displayed inthe tag area 22 on the UI screen 20 (Step S408), and finishes theUI-screen creating process.

When the UI-screen creating process is finished, the UI control unit 19displays the created UI screen 20 on the display device 60 of a clientterminal (Step S105). Thereafter, the UI control unit 19 monitorswhether any user operation for selecting any of the tags on the UIscreen 20 is performed (Step S106). Subsequently, when any of the tagsis selected (YES at Step S106), the process returns to Step S101, andthe time period of the selected tag is set in a new time range.Thereafter, by repeating the processes at and after Step S102, the UIscreen 20 is updated.

When any tag is not selected (NO at Step S106) and a predeterminedoperation for adding the meeting-minute creating area 24 on the UIscreen 20 is performed, the UI control unit 19 monitors whether any useroperation for pressing the “transfer” button 31 or the “full text (keysentence)” button 32 added on the representative time-series text in thedialogue menu area 23 is performed (Step S107, Step S109). When therehas been an operation for pressing the “transfer” button 31 (YES at StepS107), the UI control unit 19 transfers a representative time-seriestext corresponding to the operated “transfer” button 31 in themeeting-minute creating area 24 (Step S108). Further, when there hasbeen an operation for pressing the “full text (key sentence)” button 32(YES at Step S109), the display mode of the dialogue menu area 23 isswitched between the key sentence mode in which only a representativetime-series text is displayed and the full text mode in which arepresentative time-series text and time-series texts therearound aresimultaneously displayed (Step S110).

Thereafter, until an operation for finishing the display of the UIscreen 20 is performed (NO at Step S111), monitoring of user operationson the UI screen 20 at and after Step S106 is continued, and when theoperation for finishing the display of the UI screen 20 is performed(YES at Step S111), a series of operations performed by the serverdevice 10 is finished.

Effects of Embodiment

As described above in detail with specific examples, the server device10 according to the present embodiment extracts a keyword fromtime-series texts within a time range that is set according to a useroperation, collects the same keyword within a predetermined duration togenerate a tag having a certain time period, creates the UI screen 20 onwhich tags are arranged in a corresponding time period on a time axisrepresenting the set time range, and causes the display device 60 todisplay the created UI screen 20. Thereafter, when a user operation forselecting a tag on the UI screen 20 is performed, the time period of theselected tag is reset in a new time range so as to update the UI screen20. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, a tag indicating atopic of a time-series text can be displayed with an arbitrary scalespecified by a user.

The server device 10 according to the present embodiment is configuredto select tags that can be arranged in the tag area 22 on the UI screen20 in descending order of weight so as to display the selected tags inthe tag area 22, and thus tags having high importance can be displayedclearly on the UI screen 20.

The server device 10 according to the present embodiment is configuredto display, in the dialogue menu area 23, representative time-seriestexts of tags displayed in the tag area 22 on the UI screen 20, and thusacknowledgement of the outline of topics can be supported appropriately.Further, at this time, when a time-series text including a plurality oftext candidates is selected as a representative time-series text, bydisplaying, in the dialogue menu list 23, a text candidate including thekeyword of the tag selected according to a user operation as arepresentative time-series text, a user can accurately recognize therelevance between the tag selected according to a user operation and anewly displayed tag.

The server device 10 according to the present embodiment is configuredto create the UI screen 20 having a visual expression for clearlyillustrating a corresponding relation between tags displayed in the tagarea 22 and representative time-series texts displayed in the dialoguemenu area 23 by, for example, connecting each of the tags and thecorresponding representative time-series text, and to display the UIscreen 20 on the display device 60, and thus a user can accuratelyacknowledge the corresponding relation between the tags and therepresentative time-series texts to be displayed.

The server device 10 according to the present embodiment is configuredto be able to switch the display mode of the dialogue menu area 23 onthe UI screen 20 between the key sentence mode in which only arepresentative time-series text is displayed and the full text mode inwhich a representative time-series text and time-series textstherearound are displayed, according to the operations on the “full text(key sentence)” button 32, and thus searching of necessary informationcan be supported appropriately.

The server device 10 according to the present embodiment is configuredto add, on the UI screen 20, the meeting-minute creating area 24 forusers to edit texts according to predetermined user operations, and thustext editing operations using accumulated time-series texts can besupported appropriately.

The server device 10 according to the present embodiment is configuredto transfer the representative time-series text displayed in thedialogue menu area 23 on the UI screen 20 in the meeting-minute creatingarea 24 according to the operations on the “transfer” button 31 added tothe representative time-series text, and thus text editing operationscan be performed effectively. In addition, at this time, original dataof the representative time-series text to be transferred in themeeting-minute creating area 24 is reproduced or displayed, and thus auser can surely recognize the contents of the representative time-seriestext.

Modification

In the embodiment described above, while it is assumed that the firsttime range is set according to a user operation using a smartphone or aPC, it is also possible that, for example, the time range can be set byusing an agenda of a meeting specified by a user.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of an agenda of ameeting specified by a user, and FIG. 18A and FIG. 18B are diagramsillustrating an example a UI screen 20′ in a case where a recognitionresult text of dialogues in a meeting proceeded along with the agenda isdesignated as a time-series text. On the UI screen 20′ illustrated inFIG. 18A, subjects in the agenda in FIG. 17 are illustrated in a timeaxis area 21′. When one of the subjects illustrated in the time axisarea 21′ is specified by a user, for example, as illustrated in FIG.18B, the mode of the UI screen 20′ is switched to a mode in which onlyparts relevant to the subject specified by the user are displayed. FIG.18B illustrates the UI screen 20′ displayed in a case where a subject of“build tool comparison” is specified by the user on the UI screen 20′ inFIG. 18A.

In the present modification, first, when a user specifies a certainmeeting, with respect to time-series texts of the meeting, generationand arrangement of tags are performed according to a method identical tothat of the embodiment described above. Thereafter, when an agenda ofthe specified meeting is input in the server device 10 as a text file,the UI control unit 19 creates a subject list using the agenda. Thesubject list is, for example, created by recognizing, as a subject, thetext of respective rows below a row itemized as the subject in the textfile input in the server device 10. The subject list can be created froman agenda by using another text analysis technology, or can be inputclearly by a user while the user uses a certain type of UI. Further, itis also possible to select a tag used as a subject from alreadygenerated tags.

Thereafter, the UI control unit 19 extracts the first subject from thesubject list, and searches a tag that is most similar to the firstsubject. As for the tag similarity, for example, the subject and thetags are written with a space between words according to a morphologicalanalysis, and the total number of letters that match between therespective texts of words written with a space therebetween is used. Thetag of the largest number of matching letters is selected as the mostsimilar tag. When the total number of matching letters with respect toall the tags is zero, it is determined that there is no similar tag.

In this example, when a plurality of tags having the same label arefound, these tags are sorted in order of appearance in a certain timeperiod. Thereafter, after a time-series text in the time period of a taghaving appeared first, time-series texts in the time periods of tagsfollowing the first tag are inserted in order of appearance, andtime-series texts in the time periods of the tags are collected, therebyrearranging the time-series texts corresponding to the tags, so that theorder of these time-series texts becomes consecutive. This operation isrepeated until the subject list becomes empty.

Thereafter, the tag generating unit 17 generates tags again with respectto the time-series texts for which the order thereof has been rearrangedby the processes described above. At this time, the tag used as the tagmost similar to the subject is not generated. Subsequently, similarly tothe embodiment described above, the tags generated by the tag generatingunit 17 are displayed in the tag area 22 on the UI screen 20′.

Further, other than an agenda in a meeting, for example, setting of thetime range can be performed by using check items of check instructionsspecified by a user. In this case, the time-series texts are texts suchas a recognition result text in which a checking result is input as avoice according to the check instructions. Furthermore, texts of noteswritten in chronological order or texts for which notes arecharacter-recognized with an OCR and the like can be used as thetime-series texts.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of checkinstructions specified by a user, and FIG. 20 is a diagram illustratingan example of the UI screen 20′ in a case where a recognition resulttext in which a checking result is input as a voice according to thecheck instructions is designated as a time-series text. On the UI screen20′ illustrated in FIG. 20, check items of the check instructions inFIG. 19 are displayed in the time axis area 21′. When one of the checkitems displayed in the time axis area 21′ is specified by a user, thedisplay mode of UI screen 20′ is switched to a mode in which only partsrelevant to the check items specified by the user are displayed. Theoperations of the server device 10 in this case are identical to thosein the case of using an agenda in a meeting, and thus descriptionsthereof are omitted.

Additional Explanations

The server device 10 according to the present embodiment can be realizedby, for example, cooperation between hardware constituting a generalcomputer and a program (software) executed on the computer. For example,as the computer executes a predetermined program, the voice recordingunit 11, the voice recognizing unit 13, the keyword extracting unit 15,the tag generating unit 17, and the UI control unit 19 described aboveare realized. Further, by using a large-capacity storage device includedin a computer, the voice-data accumulating unit 12, the time-series-textaccumulating unit 14, the keyword holding unit 16, and the tag holdingunit 18 can be realized. The keyword holding unit 16 and the tag holdingunit 18 can be realized by using a storage device such as a RAM thattemporarily holds data.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration exampleof the server device 10 according to the present embodiment. Forexample, as illustrated in FIG. 21, the server device 10 has a hardwareconfiguration as a general computer including a hardware processor suchas a CPU 101, storage devices such as a RAM 102 and a ROM 103, alarge-capacity storage device such as an HDD 104, a communication I/F105 that performs communication to outside via a network 40, and adevice I/F 106 for connecting peripheral devices to the server device10.

At this time, the program described above is provided while beingrecorded in a recording medium such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk,a semiconductor memory, or other devices similar to them. The recordingmedium that records therein the program can have any storage format asfar as it is a computer-readable recording medium. Further, the programcan be configured to be installed in a computer in advance, and theprogram distributed via a network can be configured to be installed in acomputer as appropriate.

The program executed on the computer described above has a moduleconfiguration including respective functional units described above,such as the voice recording unit 11, the voice recognition device 13,the keyword extracting unit 15, the tag generating unit 17, and the UIcontrol unit 19. In the module configuration, the respective unitsdescribed above are generated on a main storage such as the RAM 102, asa processor reads out the program as appropriate to execute the program.

The server device 10 according to the present embodiment can beconfigured to realize a part or all of the respective functional partsdescribed above with dedicated hardware such as an ASIC (ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit) or an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array).

The server device 10 according to the present embodiment can beconfigured as a network system in which a plurality of computers arecommunicably connected to one another so as to be realized bydistributing the respective constituent elements described above in theplurality of computers. Further, the server device 10 according to thepresent embodiment can be a virtual machine operated on a cloud system.

In the embodiment described above, there has been assumed an example inwhich the information processing device according to the presentembodiment is realized as the server device 10 of a server-clientsystem, voices are input from the voice input device 50 of a clientterminal, and a UI screen is displayed on the display device 60 of theclient terminal; however, the configuration of the informationprocessing device is not limited thereto. The information processingdevice according to the present embodiment can be configured such that,not only the information processing device has the functions as theserver device 10 described above, but also has the functions as thevoice input device 50 and the functions as the display device 60. Thatis, the information processing device according to the presentembodiment can be configured such that the server device 10 describedabove is integrated with at least one of the voice input device 50 andthe display device 60.

While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments havebeen presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit thescope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described hereinmay be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, variousomissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodimentsdescribed herein may be made without departing from the spirit of theinventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intendedto cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope andspirit of the inventions.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information processing device comprising:processing circuitry configured to function as: a keyword extractingunit that extracts one or more keywords from time-series texts where akeyword has a time of appearance in the time-series texts within a firsttime range that is set according to a user operation; a tag generatingunit that generates one or more tags each corresponding to a keywordamong the one or more keywords and having a time period from a firstappearing time through a last appearing time of the keyword in thetime-series texts within the first time range; and a UI control unitthat creates a UI screen including a first display area in which a firsttime axis representing the first time range is displayed and a seconddisplay area in which the one or more tags are displayed while causingeach of the one or more tags to correspond to the time period on thefirst time axis, wherein when one of the one or more tags displayed inthe second display area is selected, the keyword extracting unitextracts one or more new keywords from time-series texts within a secondtime range that is a time range equivalent to the time period of theselected tag, the tag generating unit generates one or more new tagseach corresponding to a new keyword among the one or more new keywordsand having a time period from a first appearing time through lastappearing time of the new keyword in the time-series texts within thesecond time range, and UI control unit updates the UI screen so that asecond time axis representing the second time range is displayed in thefirst display area and the one or more new tags are displayed in thesecond display area while causing each of the one or more new tags tocorrespond in time along the time period on the second time axis.
 2. Theinformation processing device according to claim 1, wherein the taggenerating unit calculates a weight with respect to each of thegenerated tags, and the UI control unit selects the tags that can bearranged in the second display area in descending order of the weight,and displays the selected tags in the second display area.
 3. Theinformation processing device according to claim 1, wherein the UIcontrol unit creates the UI screen further including a third displayarea in which a representative time-series text selected fromtime-series texts corresponding to the tags displayed in the seconddisplay area.
 4. The information processing device according to claim 3,wherein when a time-series text including a plurality of text candidatesis selected as the representative time-series text, the UI control unitdisplays a text candidate including a keyword of the selected tag as therepresentative time-series text.
 5. The information processing deviceaccording to claim 3, wherein the UI control unit creates the UI screenhaving a visual expression for clearly illustrating a correspondingrelation between the tags displayed in the second display area and therepresentative time-series text displayed in the third display area. 6.The information processing device according to claim 3, wherein the UIcontrol unit switches, according to a user operation, a display mode ofthe third display area between a first mode in which only therepresentative time-series text is displayed and a second mode in whichthe representative time-series text and time-series texts therearoundare displayed.
 7. The information processing device according to claim3, wherein the UI control unit creates, according to a user operation,the UI screen further including a fourth display area for a user to edita text.
 8. The information processing device according to claim 7,wherein the UI control unit transfers, according to a user operation,the representative time-series text displayed in the third display areain the fourth display area.
 9. The information processing deviceaccording to claim 8, wherein the representative time-series text is atime-series text obtained by a recognizing process or amachine-translation process with respect to input original data, andwhen the representative time-series text displayed in the third displayarea is transferred in the fourth display area, the UI control unitreproduces or displays original data of the representative time-seriestext to be transferred.
 10. An information processing method executed byan information processing device, the method comprising: extracting oneor more keywords from time-series texts where a keyword has a time ofappearance in the time-series texts within a first time range that isset according to a user operation; generating one or more tags eachcorresponding to a keyword among the one or more keywords and having atime period from a first appearing time through a last appearing time ofthe keyword appearing in the time-series texts within the first timerange; and creating a UI screen including a first display area in whicha first time axis representing the first time range is displayed and asecond display area in which the one or more tags are displayed whilecausing each of the one or more tags to correspond to the time period onthe first time axis, wherein when one of the one or more tags displayedin the second display area is selected, the extracting extracts one ormore new keywords from time-series texts within a second time range thatis a time range equivalent to the time period of the selected tag, thegenerating generates one or more new tags each corresponding to a newkeyword among the one or more new keywords and having a length of a timeperiod from a first appearing time through a last appearing time of thenew keyword in the time-series texts within the second time range, andthe creating updates the UI screen say that a second time axisrepresenting the second time range is displayed in the first displayarea and the one or more new tags are displayed in the second displayarea while causing each of the one or more new tags to correspond intime alone the time period on the second time axis.
 11. A computerprogram product including a non-transitory computer-readable recordingmedium having a plurality of instructions that are executable in acomputer, the plurality of instructions causing the computer to perform:extracting one or more keywords from time-series texts where a keywordhas a time of appearance in the time-series texts within a first timerange that is set according to a user operation, generating one or moretags each corresponding to a keyword among the one or more keywords andhaving a time period from a first appearing time through a lastappearing time of the keyword in the time-series texts within the firsttime range, and creating a UI screen including a first display area inwhich a first time axis representing the first time range is displayedand a second display area in which the one or more tags are displayedwhile causing each of the one or more tags to correspond to the timeperiod on the first time axis, wherein when one of the one or more tagsdisplayed in the second display area is selected, the extractingextracts one or more new keywords from the time-series texts within asecond time range that is a time range equivalent to the time period ofthe selected tag, the generating generates one or more new tags eachcorresponding to a new keyword among the one or more new keywords andhaving a length of a time period from a first appearing time through alast appearing time of the new keyword in the time-series texts withinthe second time range, and the creating updates the UI screen so that asecond time axis representing the second time range is displayed in thefirst display area and the one or more new tags are displayed in thesecond display area while causing each of the one or more new tags tocorrespond in time along the time period on the second time axis.